Tag Archives: encrypt

Apple breaks it and jailbreakers fix it. It's an exaggerated statement to say the least but Apple has let quite a few security bugs get by them, most notorious of which was the lock screen bug. The latest security flaw discovered in iOS 7 is that file attachments sent in emails using the default Mail app are not encrypted. The flaw has been acknowledged by Apple and a fix is on its way, blah blah blah. For users who have jailbroken their device though, the fix is here. AttachmentEncryptor is a tweak that encrypts those attachments. It has no interface, no buttons or switches to flip, nothing. It works silently in the background and fixes everything.
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Email is generally regarded as a safe and secure communication method, but that doesn’t mean emails can’t be hacked. Just the fact that you could accidentally send an important email to the wrong person is reason enough to be extra cautious while transferring sensitive information. If you often need to send emails more securely than usual, SafeGmail is a Chrome extension that might help. The extension lets you encrypt email messages when you compose them. Unlike most services or extensions that redirect you to a different service or interface, SafeGmail works from within the Gmail interface and uses PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption technique - a common standard for encrypting emails, signatures and documents that has been in use for many years. The message is protected, not by a password, but with a secret question, the answer to which is only known to you and your recipient.
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Dashlane has the distinction of being one of the most widely used and trusted cross-platform online password vaults for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS-powered devices. Once installed on your computer, the app has the capacity to fetch login information from your various web browsers, store them all under one roof using a fool-proof AES-256 bit encryption, and keep all the accounts in sync with your other (computer and mobile) devices, allowing you to auto-fill online forms and switch between multiple accounts without going through the tedious chores of hectic signups. While our detailed review of the official Windows and Mac variant of Dashlane should be enough to list out the desktop app’s salient offerings, we’ll keep our focus intact on the recently-released Android variant that aims to help you with carrying your personal security vault with you on-the-go. A feature-packed iOS variant of Dashlane has been around in the iTunes App Store for quite some time now, and going by the comprehensiveness of that particular app, the Android equivalent happens to be a far cry. Why? We shall explore past the break.
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When you connect to the internet using a wireless connection, you are always at the risk of a security breach. Someone with enough skill and knowledge can easily use the lack of protective measures and manipulate the connection to get access to your network and every device connected to it. An antivirus, too, only stops intrusions that are already available in its database, and cannot detect if someone is trying to hack into your system using a WiFi network. Other than hacking into your system, in the lack of proper preventive measures, you can also become a victim of identity theft. Keeping your network secure at all times is very important to avoid dealing with such issues. Today, we have a VPN service for you called WiFi Protector that allows you to keep your wireless network protected at all times. It is an extremely easy-to-use tool that protects your wireless connection using 256 bit encryption. No matter which network you connect to, WiFi Protector will hide your real IP, and allow you to visit websites and watch videos restricted in your region. More on WiFi Protector past the fold.
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With the rise of smartphones, personal data and communications have become much less secure as compared to the good old days when dumb-phones ruled the planet. Most of the apps you download on your iPhone require access to your location, phonebook or some other form of data on your device. In addition to that, there are many ways of intercepting your text messages, or there's always the possibility that someone might just pick up your phone and start going through your private messaging threads. If you are really serious about protecting your privacy, then chances are that a simple passcode is not enough to keep you satisfied. You need something like Wickr. Wickr is an iOS app that protects text messages with military-grade encryption. That's not all there is to it, though. The app also offers timed self-destruct for text messages, anonymity and forensic cleaning for your iDevice, and automatic removal of all metadata from photos or other media files that you share through the app. Needless to say, it is definitely one of the best apps of its kind that we have come across as of yet.
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Hackers and cyber thieves can get into your computer or intercept data transfer to steal your important information if it is not properly secured. Text encryption becomes a necessity when you have to transfer information to another person over the internet. For instance, if you have a list of all your passwords saved in a file somewhere on your computer (we advise heavily against doing that, mind you!), and someone knows where to look, it can be easily stolen and used in a malicious way against you. Sensitive data should be kept either in an encrypted archive, or the text should be encrypted, depending on your requirement. Today, we have an open source application for Windows called CTI Encryption that allows you to perform text encryption and decryption from the same interface. The application allows you to encrypt your textual data using multiple keys for a single input, including Process ID and Hard Disk Serial No. It means that anyone trying to decrypt the data will have to guess multiple Keys, as well as the number of Keys used to secure the text. Moreover, there is Multi-language support in the program.
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There are many tools featured on AddictiveTips that allow you to encrypt and decrypt files and folders, and calculate hash values of any file. File encryption can be done using a password to scramble text, and even hide text inside images, which can then be unscrambled or extracted using a password, depending on the encryption criteria used. However, to perform these functions, you need to install separate tools for everything. Installing a lot of software in your computer clutters up the system and sometimes, even slows down the PC. Notepad++ is a third party text editor that can easily be classified as one of the most powerful and feature-rich alternatives to the default Windows Notepad. The plugins available for Notepad++ increase its utility more than the features available in the application itself,. Here at AddictiveTips, we constantly keep covering any useful plugins that come out for Notepad++, which can help users in increasing its functionality. Today, we have a plugin for Notepad++ called NppCrpyt, which allows you to easily Encrypt and Decrypt your data using a password. You can encrypt selected text as well all open files in a batch operation.
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Encrypting files or folders on Mac isn’t as easy as you would expect. If you often encrypt folders to ensure your data is always safe should it fall into the wrong hands, and remains inaccessible for as long as possible, then FileWard DES is a free Mac app that might be extremely useful for you. The app has an excellent, yet simple interface that supports drag & drop. It allows you to encrypt and decrypt files and folders, uses the OS X password assistant to suggest passwords, and also lets you generate checksum values for files and folders. Additionally, the app lets you securely delete files, so that they are not recoverable.
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If you enjoyed making up your own language as a kid and using it in front of your parents to make them think you were up to something, and for some reason, haven’t outgrown this fascination, it might appeal to you to code the messages you send. Whether this, or because your life’s circumstances are such that you would like to add an extra layer of security to your communication. TXTcrypt is a free Mac app that lets you do just that. It can both encrypt and decrypt text. The encryption requires a passkey, which may be up to 8 characters long. The app does not encrypt on the AES standard; instead, it uses the RC4 standard, which, while not as secure as AES, nevertheless provides a reasonable level of protection.
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Mac apps, or rather, good Mac apps, being dominated by a price tag is quite common, so much so that at times, it becomes hard to find a good app that can protect your files. Since protecting folders on a Mac is no easy job, most users will look for a quick and simple encryption tool to do the trick. Unfortunately, you might sometimes end up using two different apps; one to encrypt and the other to decrypt files. CryptoDock is a free Mac app that performs both encryption and decryption on files and folders, all through one package. The app lets you add a unique password to each one of the files you encrypt, which comes in handy if you want to securely share files with different people over a shared drive or online location.
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If your computer contains sensitive files, you can protect them using the default Windows user protection or other PC locking software. It will lock down your entire computer, and anyone without a password will not be able to access it. However, if you have to share your computer a lot, telling your password to other people and changing it every time can be a bit annoying. Other than that, you will also have to remain around the person to ensure that they are not going near your personal files. There are a lot of paid tools out there that allow you to take care of sensitive information stored in files and folders, but free security tools either don’t have the complete set of options or are limited in the number of files or folders that they can lock. MTE Folder Locker is an application for Windows that allows you to lock your personal and sensitive files and folders with a password. You can also create encrypted archives of multiple files. More on MTE Folder Locker after the jump.
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Whenever an iOS users words like theming, encryption and tweaks, it is usually assumed that only people with jailbroken iDevices can enjoy such things. So, it is always a pleasant surprise when an alternative to such features comes for users who don’t have access to the Cydia store. Black SMS is one such iPhone app, which will let you send and receive encrypted text messages, and ensures that no one else can read your personal conversations without your consent. It’s true that both users need to have the app in order to communicate securely, but since it’s free, that shouldn’t prove to be too much of an issue if both parties have a jailbroken iPhone. Black SMS ensures that you can leave your phone lying around anywhere, without even putting a passcode on the lock screen, and no one will be able to read your personal conversations without knowing the encryption code. Head past the break to learn more about this must-have app for the privacy-conscious.
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Encrypting files to prevent unauthorized access and external data theft attacks can be achieved using a number of file encryption software, which allow users to choose an encryption algorithm and encrypt key to secure the specified files. Like Mac OS X, Windows 7 also enables you to encrypt files across the disk partitions to ensure data safety, and also to restrict others from reading/writing the data. BitLocker and TrueCrypt are probably the best tools available for this very purpose. Although one can create encrypted containers for holding specified files and folders using Truecrypt, it requires following quite a lengthy wizard and configuring complex settings to encrypt a set of files. Simialrly, Windows 7 built-in BitLocker allows encrypting the entire disk, but if you’re encrypting a large disk volume, it may take hours to complete the encryption process. If you’re looking for a super powerful data encryption tool that can encrypt and decrypt specified files with a click, WinAES is a solid pick. Read past the jump for details.
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Dropbox is essentially a great service; cloud storage and cross platform sync sum up what makes it so useful. If you aren’t a fan of Dropbox, you might like one of the other and equally popular cloud storage services like SkyDrive, SugarSync, Box etc. Safebox is a free Mac app that compliments Dropbox and other cloud storage services by making sure important files are encrypted before being uploaded to the cloud. It is most conveniently used with Dropbox, as it adds a separate folder in Dropbox, visible on your local drive. All important files are first added to the Safebox folder, which, in turn, syncs with the cloud service, encrypting the files and uploading them. It is worth mentioning that the app only encrypts your data, and does not decrypt them.
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When it comes to selecting a personal information and account password manager, there are numerous applications available at your disposal. For most users, who want a powerful, as well as simple, online password manager, LastPass is the obvious choice, while others keep their personal info and account credentials secured from external attacks using KeePass and 1Password. Today, we came across a personal internet assistant and online accounts manager called Dashlane, which allows users to securely manage personal information and online passwords. Packed with form filler and automatic login features, Dashlane provides one-stop solution for accessing and managing personal information and online accounts credentials. The application includes a comprehensive set of features and tools to help you easily organize online account user logins and passwords, enabling you to automatically fill the user login details, including username and password, and add new user logins without having to bring up the dashboard. Details to follow after the jump.
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Encoding Decoding is an encryption software, which provides a dead simple mechanism for encoding files, i.e., by dragging them to the applications interface and entering a password for them. This easy to use application makes it possible to quickly secure your important files, to protect them from unauthorized access. Furthermore, it does not replace the input file, but rather, creates a more secure version of it. The only thing that you may have to be concerned with is to remember the password, in order to gain access to protected files. Encoding Decoding (application) can be used to encrypt any kind of file, including pictures, code files, Excel sheets and other MS Office documents, PDF files, etc.
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DFIncBackup is a powerful file backup utility for Windows that enables users to create highly customizable backup tasks and run them simultaneously. Supporting local and remote locations, the application can create backups in highly compressed and encrypted ZIP archive containers to prevent unauthorized usage from any external source. Moreover, the application presents an overly simple wizard to collect backup task requirements from user; it includes a number of backup options ranging from backup type (incremental and differential), source and destination folder, schedule options, file compression and encryption, and file change monitoring options. In short, DFIncBackup provides a comprehensive backup solution, carrying all the features and options that one would need to create backup tasks according to the requirements. More details to follow after the break.
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Khayalan File Splitterand Joiner(KFSJ), as the name suggests, is an application for splitting and joining files. Other than providing file splitting and joining features, it comes with additional options that are not found in conventional applications of its kind, e.g., it enables comparing two different files by their checksum or size. KFSJ can assist and facilitate file separation, merging, checksum calculation and comparison. It also provides a number of encryption types to encrypt files that are to split, including Blowfish, Twofish, Des, Ice, etc.
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Encrypting a file allows you to send it over the internet safely without worrying about its contents being read, or used by someone who is not intended to read them. for instance, a file that you upload on the internet might get hacked by someone with malicious intentions. If the file contains sensitive information, that can create a lot of trouble for you. Hashing a file, on the other hand, can be used to make sure that the file you downloaded is exactly the one that was uploaded by the author and not a file modified by a hacker. Developers often post the hash value along with the uploaded file, so that anyone downloading it can be sure that it is the same file that was originally uploaded by the author. Previously, we have covered a lot of tools, such as SFV Ninja, a portable hash value generator, that can be used to generate and compare hash values of files in order to verify their integrity. We have also covered some text encryption tools, like scrambled-egg, an open source application that allows encrypting plain text messages and files using custom encryption algorithms. Combining the features of both these applications, today we have a new tool for you called inCrypto. It is a multipurpose portable tool that lets you perform, both encryption and encoding, from a unified interface. The application supports Base64 and AES text encoding and encryption methods, while MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-256 FIle Hash values can be used to generate hash values of files. Read on to find out more about inCrypto.
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Backup of important data can act as a lifesaver in case of, say, a hard disk crash. The problem with most backup applications is that they don’t let you backup files and folders if they are in use. Ocster Backup is a backup and restore utility that takes care of this problem. It lets you create incremental backups of your data and store the backups on hard drives, USB drives or in the cloud using Ocster Secure Storage. The application allows you to encrypt your backups with AES (256 Bit) encryption, and backups can be performed automatically at scheduled times. Backups can also be paused and resumed in the middle, should you need to shutdown your computer.
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AddictiveTips is a tech blog focused on helping users find simple solutions to their everyday problems. We review the best desktop, mobile and web apps and services out there, in addition to useful tips and guides for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Read more...